The present invention relates to a clamp device for fastening long components such as heater pipes to a support such as the underfloor of an automobile.
Clamp devices for mounting long components, such as heater pipes, brake fluid pipes and fuel pipes, to supports, such as the underfloor in an automobile, are well known. Such elongated components may have a specific length that conforms to a specific mounting location. However, some tolerance is usually allowed within a certain range. If the long components are beyond the allowed tolerance, they can be bent to curve between two mounting positions, but they must be properly mounted even when bent and curved in places.
A clamp is disclosed in Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 56-056976 (Patent Document 1) in which a pipe can be bent in a certain range with respect to another pipe when there are two pipes to be mounted together. A clamp device is also disclosed in Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 05-063086 (Patent Document 2) in which an anchoring position for engaging a wire harness clamp portion with a car body mounting hole can be changed when the mounting position for the wire harness and the mounting hole in the car body are different. Also, a clamp device is disclosed in Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 06-053879 (Registered Utility Model No. 2587328, Patent Document 3) in which a stud securing portion can be adjusted within a certain positional tolerance to accommodate transverse movement with respect to a pipe clamp when, at the securing position on the card body, there is transverse movement of the stud position with respect to the length of pipes.
The devices in Patent Documents 1 through 3 have a configuration allowing for accommodation when there is some discrepancy between a mounting position on a car body and a position where long components are arranged. The clamp device in Patent Document 1 is configured so that one pipe can be accommodated with respect to another pipe. However, the clamp device cannot be mounted directly on a car body, and curved pipes cannot be mounted on a car body. The clamp device in Patent Document 2 has a sliding mechanism between a mounting position on a car body and the mounting position of a wire harness, but the device cannot accommodate a position change when the mounting position on the car body and the position where the wire harness is arranged change. The sliding mechanism in the clamp device in Patent Document 2 does not provide enough fastening strength to keep the long components fastened to the car body. The clamp device in Patent Document 3 allows a stud mounting portion to move in a transverse direction with respect to a pipe clamp portion and lengthwise with respect to long components. However, it cannot provide sufficient stud position tolerance when all pipe clamp portions move with respect to stud mounting portions, and the mounting positions do not change when there is curvature in various pipes.